There’s championship games tomorrow? Are those fir teams with all players verifiably out of the World Cup or something? verifiable yank on yank grudge match tomorrow between Horvath and Steffen. There will be some angry yanking. It will be a yank off
Just my overall observation: Germany's 50+1 rule essentially cements Bayern at the top of the DFB food chain. Their are German clubs that are in financial straits as well. Look at Schalke from recent years. Dortmund in the early aughts. People forget that Bayern kept them afloat. Bayern has won the league 19 times since the 98-90 season, including the past 10 and likely an 11th straight this season. That's not healthy. Bayern then purchases the best players from the clubs that put up any sort of a challenge. Italy, outside of the biggest teams has financial issues. Juve is up $h!t$ creek at the moment. Milan is still recovering from the past 10 years. There's also a clear divide between the established Serie A clubs and all of the other clubs. Newly promoted clubs almost always struggle mightily. That said, I want US Defenders playing in Italy so they can their masters and hopefully PhD's in defending. France's Ligue 1 is going down to 18 teams next season. PSG is clearly above everybody else, though below them is highly competitive. Some of their clubs do struggle financially though. Spain. Barca keeps kicking their financial futures down the road, and eventually that's going to catch up to them. They're literally mortgaging their future for the present. Even Real Madrid has changed their spending habits. Valencia has been teetering on the brink of financial ruin for over a decade now. Look at all of the players they've sold in the past 15 years......a lot of talent has come through there. Would love to see some of the more technical/attacking players play in Spain. Even if it's just for a year on loan. Training with those players would be a huge help. Outside of the EPL teams, European Football Clubs aren't as healthy as we like to believe. MLS is in a good position to prosper and grow should they choose to. They have to remain smart though and not try to grow too fast (i.e. going on spending sprees and increasing their costs at unsustainable rates). Two of the biggest areas for opportunity in MLS are: 1.) Teams having a clear vision for how they want to play, and knowing what type of players they need to succeed. 2.) All teams actually investing in scouting departments. Very few teams do this. RBNY, NYCFC, Philly, Nashville, LAFC, Seattle, FC Dallas, and Portland are really the only teams that seem to have a clear plan on how they want to play and what type of players they need. Austin looks like they have a clear plan as well, though it's still a little early (2 seasons). The rest of the league (20ish teams) just seems to be scattershot in their approaches, and subsequently their signings. Can't wait to see how Paxten Aaronson does at Frankfurt!
England is just sooooooooooooooooooo far ahead due to the tv contracts they have. Oliver Kahn was bemoaning this recently. The gap between England and Germany is massive, and then the subsequent gap to the rest of Europe is ENORMOUS. France, Spain, Italy, etc. can't compete. There's one Spanish team in the last 16 of the Champions League. So yes, Juve will sell McKennie to the Premier League. Yes, Valencia will sell Musah to the Premier League. Yes, I think its likely that soon enough..........Reyna will get sold to the Premier League. That's where the talent is being collected. Some of these clubs in France, Spain, and Italy can barely scape the funds to pay the wages of their existing players...........much less spend on new ones. 2022 - Bundesliga financially left behind: Bayern boss Kahn complains about a lack of income (gettotext.com)
Gio Reyna this morning in a friendly this morning against Rapid Bucharest. [Split squad for Dortmund. They're also playing Fiorentina today.] Gio Reyna 🚀[🎥: @BVB] pic.twitter.com/zDdxldeXYe— BVB Buzz (@BVBBuzz) December 10, 2022
Live by the whims of political leadership for whom you're just a sideshow, die by the whims of political leadership for whom you're just a sideshow.
A better video of an obviously injured Gio Reyna crushing a goal GIOVANNI REYNA ROCKET 🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/mvfbZofhEU— 🇺🇸 USMNTvsHaters (@USMNTvsHaters) December 10, 2022 Tillman with a brace vs Bayer Leverkusen Malik Tillman on the board today. Has a brace. Kid has proven over and over he's goal dangerous.. couldn't be the 26th man on the World Cup roster? 🤦♂️#USMNT pic.twitter.com/oW1U3bRy1o— 🇺🇸 US SOCCER CORNER 🇺🇸 (@USMNTCORNER) December 10, 2022
Steffen comes on top in the yank of 2-1 over Horvath. Middlesbrough literally trying fir the Nottingham forest promotion route of relegation candidates to promotion hopefuls Sargent snd Norwich win 1-0 to keep pace for okay odds and pressure on leaders for auto promo
That's interesting. Anyone know why they'd try Trusty at LB given he's been their best CB all season?
I mean, I thought the most likely reason would be that injuries forced the decision. However, having had several weeks off playing matches you'd think that at least ONE of the LB options at the club would be available (since they were before the break, to my knowledge). Just hoping someone comes in here with some coaching quotes.
Here are both of Tillman's goals vs Bayer Leverkusen 👏 The opening goal from Malik Tillman.Rangers 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen pic.twitter.com/mf0taAce1A— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) December 10, 2022 🎯 Tav to Tillman once again!Rangers 2-0 Bayer Leverkusen pic.twitter.com/lJY9S66EXY— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) December 10, 2022
Sevilla is in extreme relegation danger this year. 11 points after 14 games. They are this year's Valencia. The foreign player limits there just make it more difficult than Germany. And once in Europe, and players are successful, its England where the money is. Most of Spain is having financial difficulty in one way or another. Including those teams like Barca that keep spending money. We have a terrible success rate of our domestic players (non EU-passports) going to Spain. Hoppe was just the latest in a long line. Why? I don't know. But Luca de la Torre now can't get on the field either (and he has a Euro passport).
Another story in the UK today about Newcastle targeting Pulisic. https://t.co/c131oOnj7c— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) December 11, 2022
Hard to tell from the highlights. Sometimes it looks like he's the LCB in a back 3, and other times it looks like he's a LB in a 4-man back line. Either way NBD. He looks to have the skills, athleticism, etc. to have some positional versatility, which is always a good thing (in my mind, anyway). I mean, regardless of if his best position is purely CB, it's great to have CBs that have the agility, speed and ball skills that you'd expect in a FB. He's a real up-and-comer. Keep it up, fella!
100%, it's not like we are loaded with young CBs playing at the highest levels. Even Richards, whom many (including me), have high hopes for, has not "made it" yet by any stretch of the imagination. Who knows if this kid will ever pan out but what is almost certain is that there will be surprises in the pool between now and 2026. If Trusty is one of them, and he is not a pure LB, then awesome.
By past USMNT standards we're pretty loaded. McKenzie, CCV, Trusty and EPB are all starters under 25, everyone thinks Richards is even better and then you add in the MLS guys and we're about 8 deep before you have to get creative,